My Thoughts on the Psalms, Part I

This semester in Psalms class, we're going to be writing journal entries on the psalms that we read. I have been thinking and listening to my music and I am struck by how much so many of the songs on my playlist have the power that we talk about being present in the psalms. And I'm thinking of taking each journal entry and finding a song that each psalm reminds me of. For now, I'm trying to make a list of songs and I think it's a very interesting exercise, so I wanted to share.

Today's post is all about modern lament songs, primarily in showtunes (Broadway and movies). The key here is that each lament psalm in the bible actually ends with a stipulation of trust in God, despite the string of complaints. It seems so foreign to us, so contradictory... but should it? Check it out:

Endless Night (Lion King) - Lament

You promised you'd be there
Whenever I needed you
Whenever I call your name
You're not anywhere

I'm trying to hold on
Just waiting to hear your voice
One word, just a word will do
To end this nightmare

I know that the night must end
And that the sun will rise
I know that the clouds must clear
And that the sun will shine

I know that the night must end
I know that the sun will rise
And I'll hear your voice deep inside


Close Every Door (Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat)

Close every door to me,
Hide all the world from me
Bar all the windows
And shut out the light
Do what you want with me,
Hate me and laugh at me
Darken my daytime
And torture my night

Close every door to me,
Keep those I love from me
Children of Israel
Are never alone
For we know we shall find
Our own peace of mind
For we have been promised
A land of our own


At first, those two songs were the only songs I could find that showed the same hopeful upbeat on the tail of a lament. No other "sad" songs seem to show that... or do they? Upon further digging, I've found that most of our modern showtunes do show that upturn from complaint to trust - it's just located in a second song.


Will I? (Rent)
(located early in Act 1)

Will I lose my dignity
Will someone care
Will I wake tomorrow
From this nightmare?

Finale B (Rent)
(located at the very end of Act 2)

Men (Women are singing different lyrics):
Will I Lose My Dignity
Will Someone Care
Will I Wake Tomorrow
From This Nightmare
There's Only Now
There's Only Here
Give In To Love
Or Live In Fear
No Other Path
No Other Way
No Day But Today
No Day But Today
No Day But Today…


Another example is No Way Out from Brother Bear. In this song, the original lyrics from the song end with the first verse that I've listed. The song has a very distinct place in the story, before the resolution of the plot. The single version of the song, however, adds two more verses that give the entire song the conclusion required to be a proper lament psalm. The difference here is that the "complaint" is more of mourning for actions taken and bridges burned. But the emotions are still tangent and on the "edge of emotional coping" (Brueggeman, 2002?), so I think it qualifies as a lament.


No Way Out (Single Version) (Brother Bear) - Lament

There's no way out of this dark place
No hope, no future
I know I can't be free
But I can't see another way
I can't face another day

I know it's hard, but you found somehow
To look into your heart
And to forgive me now
You've given me the strength to see
Just where my journey ends
You've given me the strength to carry on

I see the path from this dark place
I see my future
Your forgiveness has set me free
Oh, and I can see another way,
I can face another day!


Another thing I've found interesting in my lessons of the psalms is Brueggeman's concept of Orientation to Disorientation to Reorientation. From hymns (God is great!) to laments (Where are you, God?!) to psalms of thanksgiving (Give thanks for God has ). That's the basis of the cycle that we continue to go through all of our lives. And Brueggemann's argument is that we can't move on to reorientation until we have embraced our disorientation. The reason I am explaining this is that this next pair of songs rings strangely true to Brueggemann's description. Here you have two songs of disorientation that lead to reorientation. But the reorientation that each man finds is very different from the other. It's a point made poignant in the play, but one that can hold even more power when read from the view of the psalms.


What have I done? Valjean's Soliloquy (Les Miserables)

(Valjean is released from prison after 20 years and taken in by a priest. He steals the priest's silver candlesticks, only to be caught by guards. Instead of condemning the thief, the priest tells the guards that he gave Valjean the silver and then tells Valjean the only stipulation is that he use the silver for good.)

Valjean:
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?
If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate this world
This world which had always hated me
Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!

One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom,
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit came to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

(Valjean then "disappears" and remakes his identity into that of a well-to-do business man, but he never forgets his roots)


Javert's Suicide: Soliloquy (Les Miserables)

(Much later in the play, after Javert has hunted Valjean for many years; Javert is caught by young freedom fighters and Valjean convinces the boys to give Javert's fate to him, then lets Javert go free.)

Javert:
Who is this man?
What sort of devil is he
To have me caught in a trap
And choose to let me go free?
It was his hour at last
To put a seal on my fate
Wipe out the past
And wash me clean off the slate!
All it would take
Was a flick of his knife.
Vengeance was his
And he gave me back my life!

Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief!
Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase.
I am the Law and the Law is not mocked
I'll spit his pity right back in his face
There is nothing on earth that we share
It is either Valjean or Javert!

How can I now allow this man
To hold dominion over me?
This desperate man whom I have hunted
He gave me my life. He gave me freedom.
I should have perished by his hand
It was his right.
It was my right to die as well
Instead I live... but live in hell.

And my thoughts fly apart
Can this man be believed?
Shall his sins be forgiven?
Shall his crimes be reprieved?

And must I now begin to doubt,
Who never doubted all these years?
My heart is stone and still it trembles
The world I have known is lost in shadow.
Is he from heaven or from hell?
And does he know
That granting me my life today
This man has killed me even so?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the stars are black and cold
As I stare into the void
Of a world that cannot hold
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean.
There is nowhere I can turn
There is no way to go on....

(Javert throws himself into the swollen river)



And to finish off this post, here are some more of the songs that I've discovered:

Why, God, Why? (Miss Saigon) - Lament
Over My Head (Titan AE) - Lament
Another Day (Rent)
Home (Beauty and the Beast)
If I Can't Love Her (Beauty and the Beast) - Lament
Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (Phantom of the Opera)
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (Les Miserables) - Lament

The funny thing is that I have a much easier time finding laments than songs of praise or thanksgiving. I wonder why that is…